To Fund Putin’s War in Ukraine, Moscow has Put on Hold Program to Replace Housing ‘Unsuitable for Living,’ Former Russian General Now Serving in the Duma Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 4 – The Russian government has put on hold a program that Moscow said would allow almost 350,000 people to move out of housing “unsuitable for living” because it needs the money for Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to Andrey Gurulyev, a United Russia deputy from the Transbaikal who used to command Russia’s Southern Military District.

            The problem with substandard housing, often lacking basic amenities like indoor plumbing and central heating and featuring collapsing walls and broken windows has long been an enormous problem, one that last year Moscow said would take 30 trillion rubles (280 billion US dollars) to fix (ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/01/04/v-gosdume-soobschili-o-priostanovke-programmi-rasseleniya-avariinogo-zhilya-iz-za-otsutstviya-deneg-v-byudzhete-a184074).

            As in so many areas, Moscow has placed the burden of addressing this problem mostly on the federal subjects, but the suspension of this federal program, even though it involved only 160 billion rubles (1.4 billion US dollars) sends a signal about Moscow’s priorities and is yet another way Putin’s war is coming home to roost on the backs of the poorest Russians. 

            Because most federal subjects are so hard-pressed, few of them are likely to increase spending to fill the gap left by Moscow’s exit from this responsibility; and while the Kremlin may be able to count on many Russians to accept this as a patriotic duty, the fact that a former general and now Duma deputy has denounced it, the number of those is likely to decline.

            As a result, the longer the war goes on, the more pressure both regional governments and the Kremlin will face to deal with those suffering the most in the Russian Federation.